The Origin of The Impossible Girl
by powerstaark
Summary: Prequel to The Fields of Trenzalore based off The Bloody Chamber. The beautiful Clara gets seduced by the handsome Koschei and taken to Gallifrey shortly before the horrific Time War where she is horrified to learn Koschei's true nature. Her only ally on this new and terrifying world soon to be destroyed by war is Romana. Oneshot which is rather dark and AU.


He came out of nowhere. Literally. His magical time and space travelling machine materialised from thin air in the middle of a street and in that moment Clara Oswin Oswald's boring life was changed forever.

The man was handsome, charming and best of all, not Human. He charmed naïve little Clara and persuaded her to run away with him. Clara's overprotective mother warned against having anything to do with him but the reckless girl wanted to travel. She promised her mother she would bake a soufflé for her on every birthday and then hugged her tight before stepping into the bigger-on-the-inside machine. It was the biggest mistake of her first life.

Clara saw the man's home, a beautiful red planet far larger than Earth. As she stood in the doorway of the machine, looking down upon the planet the man stepped beside her and kissed her cheek.

"Gallifrey," he said, "My home. Believe me very few Humans have seen it."

"It's beautiful," Clara whispered. The man smiled a charming smile that Clara had already got used to and then took his time machine, which he had explained was called a TARDIS, down to the planet.

Red grass, tall mountains, two suns and a magnificent citadel were the first things Clara saw when she stepped from the TARDIS. Her companion gestured towards the citadel.

"The Citadel of the Time Lords," he said, "Unfortunately Humans are forbidden to enter; I wasn't actually supposed to bring you here in the first place." He winked, "But I was never one to play by the rules." He took her hand, and led her back to the TARDIS.

His home was less glamorous than the citadel but still far larger and more beautiful than any house Clara had seen on Earth. The Time Lord took her through his home, talking enthusiastically all the while. Clara loved listening.

They entered the master bedroom. It was magnificent. The Time Lord informed her that he had never allowed a Human into his house and certainly never into his bedroom. Clara felt honoured; out of all the Humans the man could have chosen to bring to his home on a faraway planet he had chosen her. The man took her hand.

"Clara Oswald," he said, "Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?" That was when Clara made the second biggest mistake of her first life.

"Yes."

* * *

Time Lord, marriages were different but Clara's wedding was no less glamorous than she had dreamed. Her husband, whose name was Koschei, looked as delighted as Clara felt as they said their vows. Of course Koschei had to pull a few strings to get the approval of Lady President Romana who seemed suspicious of his motives but, with some persuasion from Koschei's allies in the court, she caved in eventually.

After the wedding Romana visited Koschei's home to speak to Clara. The girl offered her a soufflé which Romana politely refused looking very serious.

"Be careful," she warned, "Since his resurrection, he seems to have changed but I have met him in a far more violent state of mind. He's dangerous"

"Resurrection?" Clara questioned ignoring her words of caution in favour of the possibility of never dying, "Your people can bring people back to life?" Romana nodded, "Does it work on Humans?" The Lady President didn't reply. Instead she stood and excused herself. Clara could swear she heard a whispered conversation between the Time Lady and her husband. Koschei sent her away. How he could throw out the most powerful woman on Gallifrey, Clara would never know but it made her admire him even more.

Koschei carried Clara to his room. Their room. Slightly more aggressively than she had expected he stripped her. A hungry look, like that of a predator eying his pray, came across his face. Clara was soon on the bed, her new husband on top of her, hungrily exploring her beautiful body. Then he impaled her. It hurt.

They slept, Clara still slightly overwhelmed by the intensity of the sex. This Time Lord had clearly been getting around and he must have had a lot of practice. Clara had never had sex until now, despite the fact that boys were constantly flirting with her and asking her on dates back on Earth.

For a few weeks Clara lived in comfort. She wore clothes that were disapproved of by most Time Lords but due to the Romana's experiences with, and respect and even liking for, Humans (something she had picked up from an old friend) they accepted her wearing them. However they always refused to let her into the citadel. This restriction frustrated Clara and to add to her irritation, Koschei also kept one room in his home locked at all times. Nonetheless Clara was happy.

Then the Time War began.

The Daleks spread across Gallifrey like a plague. Koschei was often out fighting. Clara was always forced to stay at home. One day she'd had enough. If she couldn't help her husband fight the Daleks she at least wanted to know why he forbade her from entering the chamber beneath his house.

Taking his keys Clara went down to the chamber. She was unafraid, defiant in going against her husband's wishes. With only a brief hesitation she put the key into the lock, turned it, and opened the door.

Inside was a dark chamber. Clara switched on the light. She immediately regretted it.

A mutant, squid like creature writhed pathetically on the floor. A Dalek's casing was behind it. Clara tensed, half expecting the Dalek to attack. Then she realised that it had not reacted at all to her entrance. She looked down at the squid.

"Exterminate…" the creature said feebly and for the first time Clara realised what a Dalek was like inside its casing. She hesitated but quickly realised that the creature was severely weakened and injured; it was probably just speaking out of habit. She considered trying to help it but she knew Daleks were arguably the most dangerous race in creation so she couldn't risk it.

Dismissing the Dalek Clara looked around. A wooden table which disturbingly had metal straps attached to it stood in the middle of the room. Various instruments, scientific although Clara had never seen science so advanced, was on another, smaller table. She looked towards the other side of the chamber where a computer was standing on a desk in front of a swivelling chair.

Clara was a hacking genius and she couldn't resist a challenge from a computer. She went past the Dalek. It was amazing that the pitiful little squid was a member of arguably the most deadly race in the Universe. Clara hacked into the computer with some difficulty but not even a Time Lord could hide computer secrets from her for long.

She wished she hadn't bothered.

The computer showed that Romana had been right. Koschei had been violent. More than that he had been a mass murderer. Thousands of people had died because of him. He had tried to take over the Universe several times and on most of those occasions he was only prevented from doing so because of another Time Lord known only as the Doctor. Clara also learned what Koschei had named himself during his quest to take over the Universe.

The Master.

Horrified by what she had discovered, Clara ran from the room clutching the key tightly in her hand. Despite her newfound terror of her husband she still remembered to lock the door behind her.

* * *

Koschei knew. Clara had no idea how – it must have been some kind of Time Lord Sense – but as soon as he found the key and licked it he knew she'd been in the room.

"You disobeyed me," he said calmly, "You disobeyed your Master." Clara drew herself up to her full but still unimpressive height. She was nearly a foot shorter than Koschei.

"I know what you are," she said. Koschei smiled a smile that used to charm her but now terrified her. She didn't show it.

"You're too curious for your own good sweet little Clara," he replied and then in a display of savagery that caught Clara off guard, despite her knowledge about his nature, he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down towards his lab. Before long the terrified Clara had her wrists and ankles restrained by the straps on the wooden table.

"What are you going to do to me!?" she screamed, unable to hide her terror.

"Hush," snapped the Master, who no longer seemed like her husband as he picked up a sharp syringe, "I'm going to make sure we are bonded." Clara struggled hopelessly and then cried out with pain; the Master had literally stabbed her arm with the syringe. The entrance of the red liquid inside was completely painless though.

"What have you done to me!?" Clara screamed. The Master covered her mouth with one hand and leaned over her.

"I've injected you with my blood and that, combined with my sperm from our sex, has given us a minor telepathic link, just enough for me to read your mind," he explained, "And stop panicking; I'm not going to kill you. You're no use to me dead. I'm going to take you into the citadel. But first there is something else I must do." He took out a knife. Clara's brown eyes widened in terror. The Master lowered the knife and, with agonising slowness, stripped off some flesh from her arm. It wasn't a deep injury but it hurt like hell. The Master picked up the strip of flesh and smiled then looked back down at her, "I need to split up your DNA now," he said, "And you need to be quiet." He stuck a piece of tape across her mouth and moved to the table which had his instruments on it. Clearing them away he started to work. Clara couldn't do anything while strapped to the table with a tape gag over her mouth.

The Master finished his mysterious experiment and released her from the table. She stripped off her gag and glared at him, trying not to show how much pain her arm was in. The Master pulled her out of the room. She struggled. He struck her and she fell against the wall.

"I don't want to harm someone so beautiful," said the Master softly, "But I need a way to get out of this war. And you can provide that. Now come with me or I will knock you out, tie you up and carry you into the citadel!" Clara saw no point in fighting him; she had provoked him already and if the information on the computer was true, she was lucky he hadn't already killed her. She swallowed and followed him.

* * *

Infiltrating the citadel was easy due to most Time Lords being out fighting. The Master took Clara to a courtyard, where the Un-tempered Schism was located.

"What do you see?" he asked forcing the girl to look into the Time Vortex. Even Time Lords had trouble looking into the Vortex but Clara was strong. Seeing the power of time frightened her, and it gave her some horrible images inside her head but there were nice images too and through sheer willpower she managed to tear herself away. The Master was impressed by her resistance to time which was something even Time Lords struggled with. He stepped towards the Vortex and took a bottle from within his robe. He opened the top. Then he tossed Clara's DNA into the Time Vortex, "There," he said, "Now there will be different versions of you running around the Universe and that gives me a link to get out of this hell hole." He turned and narrowed his eyes angrily when he saw that Clara had run away. He concentrated on the telepathic connection he had implanted in her, saw where she was through her eyes, and then set off in pursuit.

When he caught her he punished her. He struck her and raped her on the floor of a massive Chamber which had statues of all the regenerations of the Time Lord founders, Rassilon, Omega and the third was known only as the Other. Then the Master sent Clara home. Well it wasn't home anymore. Clara didn't sleep at all that night.

Romana arrived the next day, demanding that the Master return to the front line. He went. Romana would have gone too but Clara begged her to stay. She told her what the Master had done.

"I warned you," Romana said but comforted the Human for about an hour before returning to her duties.

After that Clara was never right again. She kept seeing images of events that had never happened to her. No doubt a side effect of looking into the Time Vortex. And as the war became even more brutal she saw many things. Many terrible things. The Nightmare Child. The Skaro Degradations. The Hoard of Travesties. Perhaps even Hell itself.

The Master fled. He was a coward. Clara stayed. She couldn't leave for she couldn't fly a TARDIS and she was too crazy to try after everything she kept seeing either in the war or in her own head. Sometimes she just wanted to kill herself. She might have done so if not for Romana's support.

Because she spent so much time supporting a Human and, according to other Gallifreyan's, neglected her duties as the Lady President of Gallifrey, Romana was considered unfit to rule. Eventually she was replaced by the resurrected, legendary and insane Rassilon, one of the founders of Time Lord Society. Thus came the beginning of the end of the Time War.

And Clara was still alive. Romana looked after her as best she could but Clara was barely clinging to sanity. Almost any other Human would have lost their mind completely by now. Romana had to leave Clara eventually to help the Doctor, who was operating from outside the Time War. Romana told Clara that the war was in a Time Lock now and that none could escape it. The Master had fled before the Doctor created the Time Lock by using the Moment.

The Final Day of the Time War came. The mysterious Doctor prevented Rassilon from destroying the Universe. Romana saw her old friend one last time and then returned to Clara. Even as Gallifrey went up in flames, Romana comforted the Human girl like a mother would her child. Then, with regeneration useless in the destruction of a planet, she died for the last time. And with her, Clara Oswald died for the first time.

Gallifrey fell. The Time Lords fell. But Clara would rise again, or already had depending on the timelines of her different incarnations. She would not be able to remember the Time War but she would live more lives than a Human should. The Universe wasn't finished with Clara Oswin Oswald yet.


End file.
